Imagine it’s 5 a.m. on the day after Thanksgiving. You and your family patiently wait in line as the only thing between you and those Black Friday deals are the locked doors of an empty store. After waiting in the freezing cold in the early hours of the morning, the doors finally open. You rush in to grab anything and everything within your reach from the fully stocked shelves. But when you reach the register, you realize that these sales are not saving you as much money as you thought.

It seems as though Black Friday is not what it used to be. The sales that companies are offering have become a running joke across all social media platforms, with many people questioning whether or not Black Friday is even worth waking up early and camping out in front of stores.

If you watch footage of Black Friday from a decade ago, you will see people running, shoving, and blatantly committing crimes to get 75% off a flat screen TV. Though the violence should be left in the past, you hardly ever see sales like that in recent years. It feels like companies today will push advertisements that say things like, “Buy three. Get one 25% off!” which is not saving you as much money as it sounds like it is. Nevertheless, people give in to this style of advertising and find themselves spending hundreds of dollars on products they did not need in the first place.

That being said, these companies know that advertising sales on social media and television are effective ways to grab people’s attention. On apps like TikTok or Instagram, you will almost always come across an advertisement from an influencer sponsored by some major company trying to get you to buy whatever they’re selling. How many times have you seen an influencer or celebrity you like have a partnership with a business that does not feel fitting for their personal brand? As long as these companies have the face of someone relevant in the media on their products, people will be more likely to pay these unreasonably high prices.